Associate Professor of English, Converse College

Tag: Oiselle

In general, this was a much more difficult year than 2017. It started with a struggle and saw me scratch quite a few races that I had hoped to run. It also involved a cortisone shot to the knee. Not the first, but hopefully the last–this one really hurt. Overall, I ran 1255 miles (or… Continue Reading My Year in Running: 2018

While I’ve been keeping up my CV and my reading list here, I haven’t posted much in 2018. But today felt like a good day to crank things up again since it’s a beginning or a re-beginning of another kind: I began another marathon training cycle this morning. In exactly seventeen weeks, I’ll run marathon… Continue Reading And so it begins. Again.

There’s about a week left in 2017, and I’m taking a bit of a break from running to give myself a chance to rest and recover from what has been a fantabulous year of running. I’ve hit all of my goals and then some. I’m between training cycles right now, and I’m feeling both a… Continue Reading My Year in Running: 2017 Edition

Race week. Tapering brings out all the feels. So does finding out that someone hit your car over the weekend and neglected to leave a note. So some, okay a lot, of my energy during the week was taken up by dealing with getting my car fixed (the damage turned out to be cosmetic,… Continue Reading Richmond Week 20: The Big Dance

Tapering. Yes. 34.8 miles this week. After the last several weeks of 50+ miles, this week was a piece of cake, at least when it came to the legs. As for the rest, it was in like a lamb and out like a lion (Yes, I know it’s usually the other way around). Sometimes, I’m… Continue Reading Richmond Week 19: Taper Madness

Here I was thinking that this was week 17, and I’ve thought that all week long. But it’s actually been week 18. Counting has never been my strong suit . . . We’ll start off the recap with something that I’m excited about: as of today, 28 October 2017, I’ve run the year (In layman’s terms,… Continue Reading Richmond Week 18: Or, Taper Week 1

One more heavy week and then we start to cut back a little. This week was intense, and that’s a good thing, I think. After Sunday’s twofer in what I can only describe as The Suck that is summer-weather in October, it didn’t really get easier. Monday’s run was mercifully short–“only” 6 miles, but the… Continue Reading Richmond Week 16: Friday the 13th & #ThisIs45

Bird camp week. That meant that my training plan needed to be a bit more flexible because the GPS is less accurate in the North Carolina mountains, and we were a lot higher in elevation than I’m used to in Spartanburg. The week started off with eight easy recovery miles on the heels of the… Continue Reading Richmond Week 15: Now My Heart Is Full

I can’t tell you how relieved I am this evening. I have finally had a really good week of running, my first in a while. Maybe my first since Victoria in June. Let me clarify: I’ve had some “Not Terrible” weeks since June, but summer in South Carolina renders much else pretty much impossible. Amsterdam… Continue Reading Richmond Week 14: Wheels Up

About Me:

I'm an English professor at Converse College, where I specialize in 20th and 21st Century literature. I also direct our college study-travel programming. I am a contributing writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education blog ProfHacker (my posts are archived here). I love to run. I'm a crime fiction junkie, a rabid Steeler fan, a decent fantasy football manager, and can put together a respectable March Madness bracket. In my spare time, you can find me running, walking my dog, feeding a cat or three, or, just maybe, taking a nap.